Since the votes were even, I am going to do Beware, then Space Detective
Tentacle Casper's gonna getcha
So anyway our boy Clarence here is trapped in an unhealthy marriage to a gold digger who is cheating on him with what I have to assume is Mobster Jimmy Olsen
Time for an entirely different Tales from the Crypt setup to come in!
So that night Clarence has a nightmare where he sees white slug creatures rising from the sea. The slug creatures tell him that he is one of them in spirit, and they shall come for him. He wakes up screaming and his wife tells him to shut up.
I THINK he snapped his neck. The artwork makes it sort of unclear.
That Ran guy seems like he was pretty unhinged to begin with. If he hadn't found that racist statue, he would have found some other excuse to murder small animals.
"The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge Number 216, DEMANDS SACRIFICE! Look, the front stoop is an altar to receive my daily gifts of blood!"
This is kinda Poe-esque and I'm digging it so far! Looking forward to seeing this asshole get his from his zombie aunt
Anyway our boy Brian tries to drown his fears in wine, women and song, but it turns out that the talk about the grinning dead aunt freaks out the ladies.
I'm not joking here
So Brian keeps having visions of turning into his aunt and seeing her take his body, so he heads to the graveyard with a gun to see if she's really dead
Old Nell probably thinks everyone she meets is a ghost at this point. That’s why she isn't angry that she was sitting on a fortune all these years, then some random family showed up and made off with the money after threatening to kick her out.
Fun fact: Rod Hathaway and Dot Kenny are the great great great great great grandchildren of Anne Hathaway and Tom Kenny, respectively
You can't prove they aren't.
Rod likes to give back to the poor to assuage his guilt over giving his hot secretary the worse name and costume when they fight crime.
In the future, we use rays for everything. You didn't see it, but all of Rod's money is contained in bank rays, and he eats food rays for breakfast
Show us how you detective, space detective! Make a brilliant deduction!
Okay that's only an okay deduction, and you know it Rod
It's a good thing nobody's armed so Rod and Dot can just defeat all these guys with the power of punches
Instead of using their punch-rays
WILL Rod and Dot ever catch Maag? WHAT does the dastardly space-pirate have planned? And WHY does Rod get two codenames when his secretary who he might or might not be in a relationship with only gets one that just sounds like a name? Find out next time on THE OPIUM SMUGGLERS OF VENUS
I'm amused that they have superhero code names but don't disguise their faces at all. They must be banking on their civilian identities not being known.
Awfully convenient that the opium factory's latitude and longitude were both whole degrees. No decimals or minutes or seconds or anything.
I'm a bit unclear on why Avenger and Teena initially intend to interview Sirrah Vau, then upon seeing him give his subordinates a letter to deliver to an actress, they immediately suspect Sirrah—enough to assault his messengers and steal the letter.
Eh, comicbook law enforcement. "The kids reading don't care about due process!"
Also, gotta love the part where Avenger slugs Sirrah Vau to the floor and then... just lets him run away while he uses his X-Ray to confirm that he's actually Maag. Because clearly, establishing his identity is more important than catching him as soon as possible. It's not like you just saw him murder a woman so he's a wanted criminal regardless of any alternate identities he may or may not have, right?
Note: Space Detective is published by Avon Comics, not Hillman Periodicals. If they were published by Hillman Periodicals, I would be congratulating them on sneaking that word in.
Sadly hypnosis ray testimonies are still not permissible in court
If there's no sound, no one will realize the building blew up! Martians don't have eyes!
Remember: If you have a fishbowl on your head, the vacuum of space means nothing.
And Maag is DEFEATED by his inability to properly manage two hostages at once.
Next week we're done with Space Detective but we still have one more story left in this comic. Tune in on Wednesday for the adventures of Lucky Dale, Girl Detective!
That first page: having two panels at the bottom with different heights is a bit confusing. It's not immediately obvious whether you're supposed to read the taller panel first, or the leftmost one.
Inaudible dynamite and an invisible starship, huh? "Pew pew pew! I shot you with my high-powered ultraviolet laser gun! You’re dead now!" "Not so fast, Maag! I’m wearing my infrared energy armor, so I’m immune to your attacks!" "Fine! But that armor is useless against the inaudible grenade from my invisible grenade launcher!" "While you were talking, Teena sabotaged your grenade launcher!" "Yes, but..." "And I used my hypno-ray to convince all your henchmen to switch to my side!" "You can't..." "And Teena set off the silent alarm, so the Space Police will be here any minute!" "MOM! Avenger won't stop cheating!"
Maag finds out the hard way why you cuff your prisoners so their arms are BEHIND them.
The lesson for space criminals is: If you see your most hated enemy drifting helpless in space, don't get greedy. Just shoot them. Or leave them to die, if you absolutely need to be cruel about it.
You know, after so many action comics where half of the story was told via narration boxes, it's nice to see one that lets the art and dialogue mostly speak for themselves.
On that last page, those are some weird and rather confusing panel shapes. I wonder why... Oh, it's so we can see Lucky's legs better in that middle panel. Of course.
Comments
At least it wasn't as racist as I feared? WAY more animal cruelty than I was expecting though.
"The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, Lodge Number 216, DEMANDS SACRIFICE! Look, the front stoop is an altar to receive my daily gifts of blood!"
I'm not joking here
lmao at that last panel
and DEFINITELY looking forward to opium smugglers of venus
and:cosmetic stick, really now
Remember: If you have a fishbowl on your head, the vacuum of space means nothing.
Inaudible dynamite and an invisible starship, huh?
"Pew pew pew! I shot you with my high-powered ultraviolet laser gun! You’re dead now!"
"Not so fast, Maag! I’m wearing my infrared energy armor, so I’m immune to your attacks!"
"Fine! But that armor is useless against the inaudible grenade from my invisible grenade launcher!"
"While you were talking, Teena sabotaged your grenade launcher!"
"Yes, but..."
"And I used my hypno-ray to convince all your henchmen to switch to my side!"
"You can't..."
"And Teena set off the silent alarm, so the Space Police will be here any minute!"
"MOM! Avenger won't stop cheating!"
Maag finds out the hard way why you cuff your prisoners so their arms are BEHIND them.
The lesson for space criminals is: If you see your most hated enemy drifting helpless in space, don't get greedy. Just shoot them. Or leave them to die, if you absolutely need to be cruel about it.